At present I suspect that the public is fairly evenly split three ways between supporters of each of the two sides of the argument and the don't knows. That was probably true within the Government too, but the pressures of perceived self interest and of loyalty to the Prime Minister are pushing many of those who see the arguments evenly balanced, or simply impossible to assess, into the pro-EU camp.

Amongst Ministers that is certainly so. The failure of Home Secretary Theresa May to live up to her reputation as a critic of the EU came as little surprise to anyone, but the loss of Savid Javid from the Brexit cause was another matter. "Sources close to" Mr. Javid have said that he took his decision with a heavy heart. No wonder, for if I am right in my belief that regardless of the outcome of the referendum, only a Brexit campaigner would be able to reunite the Conservative Party, Javid has lost the chance to be only its second ethnic minority leader almost 150 years after Benjamin D'israel became the first.

As for Boris Johnson, he can never resist teasing his audiences and he has done that supremely well. Boris is far from without weaknesses but he will be a formidable addition to the Brexit Army.

Mr Cameron put himself at a great disadvantage in his negotiations with the government of the EU by leading everyone to conclude that he was absolutely committed to taking home a deal and recommending it to the British people. Even worse, the deal he has brought home is not yet quite nailed down. The Prime Minister is adamant that the he has an assurance that at some time in the future the Treaty will be amended to "make clear" that the references to ever closer union do not apply to Britain. However any amendment to the Treaty requires the consent of all member states and who knows what, say the Greeks might demand for their consent. Even the "emergency brake" allowing the imposition of restrictions on the payment of welfare benefits to EU citizens required the agreement of the Commission and could be upset by objections from a large enough combination of other member states.

Nor have we gained the right to make our own laws, decide on our own rate of VAT, make our own fishing regulations in our own territorial waters, or decide who should come across our borders.

Whilst the Prime Ministers hints darkly at the perils to our security of becoming a free self governing state once again, we would be free to agree to keep the machinery of a European arrest warrant and cooperate against terrorism with our friends on the mainland of Europe. The purpose of Brexit is freedom, not isolation, and those of us who seek to return to independence resent the way in which the zealots for rule from Brussels use the word "Europe" when they mean The European Union.

Darkly they hint that should we opt for independence the EU might refuse to trade with us. Imagine Germans not trying to sell us the VW cars, or the French not accepting Sterling for their cheese. Come to that, how would an Airbus look without its Rolls-Royce engines, BAE Wings, or Dowty landing gear? Self interest on both sides of the Channel would keep trade flowing both ways. But never willing to stop talking down our country the anti-independence brigade then play their master card. Well we would still have to manufacture to EU standards and would have no voice in setting them. Indeed, that is right. We would. Just as we have to meet Amreican and Chinese standards to sell in those markets.

As I did my weekly shopping yesterday in Waitrose I was encouraged at the number of people who told me that they would vote to win back our independence. And that before the Brexit Army, led by Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Iain Duncan Smith, Theresa Villiers, Lord Lawson, Labour's Kate Hooey and the Ukip irregulars under Nigel Farage have really opened fire.